Right BLACK At It

South Carolina passed a law in 1740 banning enslaved people from learning to write, from gathering in groups, from growing their own food, and from earning money. It also banned them from wearing nice clothes. There is a clause in the statute specifying the quality of fabric a Black person was permitted to wear. It is called the Negro Act. It was passed the year after the Stono Rebellion, which we have covered on this page — and every clause in it is a confession about what frightened them. Writing was banned because literate people can forge a pass. Assembly was banned because that is how a rebellion is planned. Growing your own food and earning your own money were banned because a person with savings can buy a horse, a weapon, or a journey. And clothing was banned because the law could not tolerate a Black person looking prosperous. The statute authorised officials to seize and destroy any garment judged above the permitted grade — the coarse stuff that became known as "Negro cloth."